domingo, 30 de septiembre de 2012

ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2012) — A piece of nettle cloth retrieved from Denmark's richest known Bronze Age burial mound Lusehøj may actually derive from Austria, new findings suggest. The cloth thus tells a surprising story about long-distance Bronze Age trade connections around 800 BC.

2,800 years ago, one of Denmark's richest and most powerful men died. His body was burned. And the bereaved wrapped his bones in a cloth made from stinging nettle and put them in a stately bronze container, which also functioned as urn.
Now new findings suggest that the man's voyage to his final resting place may have been longer than such voyages usually were during the Bronze Age: the nettle cloth, which was wrapped around the deceased's bones, was not made in Denmark, and the evidence points to present-day Austria as the place of origin.
"I expected the nettles to have grown in Danish soil on the island of Funen, but when I analysed the plant fibres' strontium isotope levels, I could see that this was not the case," explains postdoc Karin Margarita Frei from the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre for Textile Research at the University of Copenhagen.
"The levels indicate that the nettles grew in an area with geologically old bedrock. We can only find rock with similar levels of strontium isotope in Sweden and Norway as well as in Central Europe."
Karin Margarita Frei had to conclude that Bronze Age Danes did not use local stinging nettle for their nettle textiles.Strontium tells us where we come from
It is Karin Margarita Frei who has developed the method to determine plant textiles' strontium isotope levels that has led to the surprising discovery.
Strontium is an element which exists in Earth's crust, but its prevalence is subject to geological and topographical variation. Humans, animals, and plants absorb strontium through water and food. By measuring the strontium level in archaeological remains, researchers can determine where humans and animals lived, and where plants grew.

The new discovery is the result of a collaboration between an international team of researchers from the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre for Textile Research at the University of Copenhagen, the University of Bergen in Norway, and the National Museum of Denmark. The findings are described in an article that has just been published in Nature's online journal Scientific Reports.Made in Austria
Karin Margarita Frei's work and the grave's archaeological remains suggest that the cloth may have been produced as far away as the Alps.
A bronze container, which had been used as urn, is of Central European origin and probably from the Kärnten-Steiermark region in Austria. The strontium isotope analysis of the cloth indicates that it may very well be from the same region. This assumption is supported by yet incomplete analyses of pitch found in the Lusehøj grave.
Textile archaeologist Ulla Mannering from the National Museum of Denmark offers an explanation as to how an Austrian cloth ended up in Funen, Denmark.
"Bronze Age Danes got their bronze from Central Europe, and imports were controlled by rich and powerful men. We can imagine how a bronze importer from Funen in Denmark died on a business trip to Austria. His bones were wrapped in an Austrian nettle cloth and placed in a stately urn that his travel companions transported back to Denmark," Ulla Mannering suggests.Nettles made good textile
The strontium isotope analyses have surprised Ulla Mannering.
She concludes on the basis of the analyses that Central Europeans still used wild plants for textile production during the Bronze Age while at the same time cultivating textile plants such as flax on a large scale. Nettle textiles could apparently compete with textiles made from flax and other materials because top quality nettle fabrics are as good as raw silk.
The strontium isotope analyses also mean that Danish textile history needs revision.
"Until recently the Lusehøj nettle cloth was the oldest nettle cloth we knew, and the only Bronze Age nettle cloth, but with our new findings we actually have no evidence that nettle textiles were produced in Denmark at all during the Bronze Age," Ulla Mannering points out.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120928093717.htm

World Heritage Site faces an uncertain future as human and environmental forces portend a slow demise.The UNESCO World Heritage Site known as Elephanta Caves dates back between the 4th and 9th centuries AD. The caves themselves lie about 7 km from the shore of Elephanta Island, originally named Gharapuri/city of caves. The island lies about 11 km north-east of Apollo Bunder in Mumbai, India. Carved out of solid rock, the Elephanta caves feature some of the most impressive statues of Lord Shiva, in his various forms and avatars. Lord Shiva is a major Hindudeity and considered to be the most powerful god in Hinduism.
To see this ancient monumental art is, for many, a visual odyssey. Except during the monsoons, the ferries leave from the Gateway of India beginning around 9 am in the morning, transporting thousands of tourists who come to Mumbai to explore the historical site.
The sculptures in these caves are considered representative of ancient art forms – especially that of the Chalukyan empire and the Gupta kingdom. The three temples stretch out from Stupa Hill to Canon Hill, but it is the temple in the center – the Main Temple – that is grandest of all. It is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva (the Destroyer in the Hindu Trinity), and showcases Shiva in all his different forms. Massive square-sided pillars support a ceiling that is believed to have originally been painted. Opposite the entrance, dominating the wall, is a massive sculpture that depicts Sadashiva, the three faces or embodiments of Shiva. There are other depictions of Shiva, as well – as Nataraj, performing the cosmic dance of destruction; as Yogeshwar, the lord of yoga; as Ardhanareeshwara – half man and half woman and – in his most romantic form – as Kalyanasundara, the bridegroom in his wedding with Parvati. All of the sculptures, including those of the eight dwarapalas (guards of the gate) surrounding the sanctum sanctorum with its shivlinga, have earned the Caves' status as a World Heritage Site.

But both historically and today, the Caves face elements that may threaten their very existence.
In 1534, Elephanta, along with the islands that were to constitute Bombay, went under Portuguese control. By then sections of the caves were already in ruin, damaged by weather and nature’s forces. It is reported that target practice by soldiers may have also damaged a few sculptures. Later, the Marathas occupied the island in the 17th century. In 1774, the English assumed control of the island. Unchecked destruction within the cave site continued under British rule and it was not until 1909 that the main cave was declared a protected site under the Ancient Monuments Preservation Act.
To the right of the main cave, one sees an asbestos sheet fitted in an attempt to ensure the water from the roof of the caves flows into a natural well below. The sheet is installed every monsoon season. The caves are cleaned using chemicals. But the defaced head of a lion that stands guard at the lingam shrine in the east court of the main cave is a clear indicator of how the caves are being protected. To its side lies a pool of stagnant water littered with aerated water bottles.
Plans and funds for protecting, preserving and developing the site have been limited. The main planning focuses on utilising the grants from the government to install dustbins, create garbage pits, beautify the jetty, build toilets and set up signage across the island. Widespread graffiti and water seepage are issues with which the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is struggling to cope. Further, ad-hoc construction has led to mismanagement on the island. Conservationists maintain that the area requires stricter regulations and better utilization of monetary resources.
The development and preservation of the site is critical because nearly 90 per cent of the local people in the surrounding communities thrive on Elephanta tourism.

Says V. Kanchana, a concerned writer and recent visitor to the site, "the closure of a heritage site such as this is not only unimaginable and beyond reason but would also pose a big economic trouble to the locals of the island and to the image of India’s tourism in general. The caves are too precious and sacred to be lost. As protectors of the world's heritage, archaeologists need government support to protect these historical sites which are in a debilitated state. They can't fight on their own to save the monuments, but we as citizens together can help them in protecting our precious sites so that the future generations are able to get a glimpse of our rich heritage."

Elephanta's plight is not limited to its cultural treasures. In addition to being a seat of culture, it is also an ecological treasure, home to myriad species of fauna. Kingfishers, pond herons, plovers, magpies, kites, bulbuls, drongos and minivets, Paradise Flycatchers, rhesus, bonnet and macaque species of monkey as well as numerous butterfly species live on the island and its forests. However, this fragile ecosystem is negatively impacted by industrial developments undertaken by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Butcher Island, petrochemical installations, the nuclear plant at Trombay and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Plastic bags outside the caves and tetrapacks floating around the water cistern threatens much of the environment of the island and poses a danger to the survival of the rich and rare species thriving there.
Kanchana and others are hoping that new resources and more effective planning and management of already available resources will help save Elephanta from eventual oblivion - If not for the world, at least for the numerous locals who rely on this heritage for survival.
For more information about the Elephanta Caves, see the Archaelogical Survey of India - http://asi.nic.in/asi_monu_whs_elephanta.asp and UNESCO - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/244/.
_______________________________V. Kanchana, the contributor to this article, is an expert in marketing communications with experience in diverse industries and organizations like Bank of America, Business Standard and Risk Management Solutions Inc. She has been a leading participant in several business forums both in India and abroad. Kanchana is also an avid writer and is a regular contributor to various web media on topics of varied interest. She is a frequent visitor to places of archaelogical interest. She recently visited Elephanta caves and reflects her first-hand experience in this article. http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/september-2012/article/india-s-monumental-city-of-caves-under-threat

sábado, 29 de septiembre de 2012

Archaeologists have found a stone tool assumed to be an early calendar dating back 4,000 years in a cave in the northern province of Tuyen Quang.

According to Prof. Trinh Nang Chung from the Vietnam Archaeology Institute, the stone tool, with 23 parallel carved lines, seemed to be a counting instrument involving the lunar calendar.
A similar tool was found in Na Cooc Cave in the northern province of Thai Nguyen's Phu Luong District in 1985, Chung said.

Similar items have been found in various areas in the world, including China, Israel and the UK, suggesting that people 5,000 years ago knew how to calculate the lunar calendar by carving on stones.

The stone tool was discovered in a tomb marked with 14 large stones laid at a length of 1.6m. Bones were uncovered under the stones but no skull was found, with Prof. Chung guessing that the skull may have decayed due to the humidity in the cave. A number of other stone tools were buried with the corpse, he added.

The excavation was conducted on a total area of 20 sq. m inside Nguom Hau Cave in Na Hang District, unearthing about 400 objects to a depth of 1.2m belonging to two cultural layers of the Late Neolithic period (4,000-4,200 years ago) and the Metal Age (around 3,000-3,500 years ago).

The deeper layer (of Late Neolithic), about 1m thick, consisted of well-polished axes and other stone tools, while the later cultural layer measured only 20cm contains fewer tools with axes and ceramic pieces.

There was also a large amount of animal teeth and shells found at the site, thought to be the remnants of food left by the ancient dwellers. Scientists also found traces of burned coal and fire in both layers.

The cave was discovered in May last year, while the excavation was conducted within a 20-day period earlier this month.

Earlier excavations in the same province have found traces of human populations dating back to 7,000-8,000 years ago.

"These findings prove that early people have lived continuously in local caves since 8,000 years ago, until more advanced material cultures developed," Chung said.

Similar characteristics have not been observed in other constructions of the Bronze Age, with three-metre thick walls, square towers originally measuring up to seven metres, a monumental entrance and an ogival arched postern gate; a fully conserved architectural element unique in Europe in that period.
The wall protected a city measuring 4 hectares located on top of a hill. With architectural elements reminiscent of people with Eastern styled military skills, its model is typical of ancient civilisations of the Mediterranean, such as the second city of Troy.
The alignment and characteristics reveal a shrewd defence strategy which represented a new way of fighting, and the implementation of a violent and class-based power structure which conditioned the development of other communities in the Iberian Peninsula during the following seven centuries.
The discovery poses new questions about what is known of the origin of economic and political inequalities in Europe, the formation of the military and the role violence played in the formation of identities.
The discoveries made in the past few years at La Bastida point to the importance of this site in Prehistoric Europe, comparable only to the Minoan civilisation of Crete, and represent a strong addition to the projection of heritage in the region of Murcia, Spain and Europe in general.
The archaeological excavations carried out this year at the site of La Bastida (Totana, Murcia) have shed light on an imposing fortification system, unique for its time. The discovery, together with all other discoveries made in recent years, reaffirm that the city was the most advanced settlement in Europe in political and military terms during the Bronze Age (ca. 4,200 years ago -2,200 BCE-), and is comparable only to the Minoan civilisation of Crete.
The discovery was presented today by Pedro Alberto Cruz Sánchez, Secretary of Culture of the Region of Murcia and Vicente Lull, professor of Prehistory of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and director of the excavation. The event also included the presence of Iván Martínez Flores, executive administrator of the research and head of the UAB Area for Strategic Projects.
The fortification consisted of a wall measuring two to three metres thick, built with large stones and lime mortar and supported by thick pyramid-based towers located at short distances of some four metres. The original height of the defensive wall was approximately 6 or 7 metres. Until now six towers have been discovered along a length of 70 metres, although the full perimeter of the fortification measured up to 300 metres. The entrance to the enclosure was a passageway constructed with strong walls and large doors at the end, held shut with thick wooden beams.
One of the most relevant architectural elements discovered is the ogival arched postern gate, or secondary door, located near the main entrance. The arch is in very good conditions and is the first one to be found in Prehistoric Europe. Precedents can be found in the second city of Troy (Turkey) and in the urban world of the Middle East (Palestine, Israel and Jordan), influenced by the civilisations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. This indicates that people from the East participated in the construction of the fortification. These people would have reached La Bastida after the crisis which devastated their region 4,300 years ago. It was not until some 400 to 800 years later that civilisations like the Hittites and Mycenaeans, or city-states such as Ugarit, incorporated these innovative methods into their military architecture.A Construction Designed for Combat The fortification of La Bastida is an impressive construction due to its monumentality, the expertise demonstrated in architecture and engineering, its antiquity and because it helps us today to learn about such a distant past which is also easily recognisable in the present. It also represents an innovation in the art of attacking and defending fortifications, especially on the military front. The construction was designed solely for military purposes, by people experienced in fighting methods unknown in those times to the West.
The towers and exterior walls denote advanced knowledge of architecture and engineering, with slopes of over 40 per cent. The lime mortar used offered exceptional solidity to the construction, strongly holding the stones and making the wall impermeable, as well as eliminating any elements attackers could hold on to.
The postern gate, as a hidden and covered entrance, demanded great planning of the defensive structure as a whole and of the correct engineering technique to fit it perfectly into the wall. Continental Europe's First Bronze Age City The latest excavations and the result of Carbon 14 dating indicate that La Bastida was probably the most powerful city of Europe during the Bronze Age and a fortified site since it was first built, in circa 2,200 BCE, with a defence system never before seen in Europe.
The fortification was not the only discovery made. From 2008 to 2011, excavations unearthed large residences measuring over 70 square metres distributed throughout the city's four hectares. These large houses and public buildings were alternated with other smaller constructions, all separated by entries, passageways and squares. A large pool held by a 20-metre dyke with a capacity for almost 400,000 litres of water also clearly denotes that the city's population was of a complexity and that it used advanced techniques incomparable to other cities of its time.
The discoveries made at La Bastida reveal a military, political and social rupture: the establishment of a violent and classist ruling society, which lasted seven centuries and conditioned the development of other communities living in the Iberian Peninsula. Overall, archaeologists are redefining what is known of the origin of economic and political inequalities in Europe, as well as military institution and the role played by violence in the formation of identities. A Unique Archaeological Park in Spain The excavations at La Bastida are directed by the Research Group in Mediterranean Social Archaeoecology (ASOME) of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), formed by lecturers Vicente Lull, Rafael Micó, Cristina Rihuete and Roberto Risch. The research group receives the support and funding of the Department of Culture Regional Cultural Ministry of Murcia, the UAB, and the Totana City Council. The Spanish Ministries of Industry, Trade and Tourism, and of Economics and Competitiveness also give financial support to the project.
La Bastida will be systematically excavated with the aim of becoming a unique archaeological park open to the public and consisting in a monographic museum, a research and documentation centre, and part of the site open to visitors. Advancing and maintaining this project will depend on the commitment shown by the different public institutions and social agents taking part in the excavation of La Bastida.

Excavations at the mammoth hunting site of Breitenbach near Zeitz uncover 35,000 year old ivory workshop

In an international co-operation project, archaeologists from the Monrepos Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for the Evolution of Hominin Behaviour, part of the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, (RGZM) and the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege and Archäologie in Saxony-Anhalt are excavating the 35,000 year old site of Breitenbach, close to Zeitz in Saxony-Anhalt.
Other co-operation partners are the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Leiden (NL), the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (ArchPro) in Vienna, the Institute of Geoinformatics i3mainz of the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz as well as the Institutes of Geosciences at the universities of Mainz, Tübingen and Cologne.
During this year’s campaign, site directors Dr. Olaf Jöris and Tim Matthies and their team found the oldest evidence for clearly distinct working areas which are interpreted as standardized workshops for working mammoth ivory. It was possible to identify a zone where pieces of ivory were split into lamella, as well as a second area where the pieces had been carved and their waste had been discarded.
Some ivory beads and rough outs of unfinished products were also found amongst this debris, alongside several other ivory objects, including a decorated rod and fragments of a three-dimensionally modified object, very likely an object of art. The manufacturers were early modern humans similar to ourselves, who obtained mammoth ivory which had probably lain around at this site for some time, either from the carcasses of mammoths which had died here naturally or from the bodies of the victims of expert hunters. In the case of the latter scenario, the mammoths could have been hunted by modern humans or even by Neanderthals, since Neanderthals had only become extinct a few thousand years before the site was occupied by modern humans.
The clear spatial deposition of the finds in different working areas allows us to draw conclusions about the use of space at around 35,000 years ago, a concept apparently still unknown to Neanderthals.

The settlement at Breitenbach covers an area of at least 6,000 m2 and perhaps as much as 20,000 m2, making it one of the largest sites of the younger Palaeolithic period (Upper Palaeolithic) known to date. The first archaeological excavations were carried out in the 1920’s; the more recent campaigns have investigated some 70 m2 of the site. Many students from 25 countries have helped to excavate the site. Close to 3,000 finds have been recovered so far in this year alone.
Finds comparable in age to the ones from Breitenbach are most commonly found in caves, where the utilisation of space was governed by the natural formation of the cave walls. This led to restrictions on, and compromises by, the cave inhabitants. In addition, the same areas of caves were repeatedly inhabited over a long period of time, superimposed over and often blurring details of earlier settlement remains. In the open, as at Breitenbach, humans had the possibility to organise their space more or less free of restrictions or preconditions and establish structures which allow us to reconstruct the daily life of this period at the highest resolution.
Field work at Breitenbach has provided new insights into the spatial activities of people at the beginning of the younger Old Stone Age (Upper Palaeolithic), especially into the spatial organisation of settlement sites and thus of daily life during the Aurignacian at around 40,000-34,000 years ago. This is ultimately of great importance for our understanding of the roots of modern human behaviour itself, since indications for “organizing oneself”in a well-defined and regulated manner which we are accustomed to today, are recognized for the first time worldwide through the new features discovered at the site of Breitenbach.
Due to the unparalleled large size of the settlement area, the Breitenbach site offers a unique opportunity to undertake a detailed investigation of an open site of the Aurignacian period. This will enable us to gain new insights into the complexity and spatial organisation of an early Upper Palaeolithic settlement site, where evidence of personal adornment, art, music or even burials, which are to date hardly known from this period, can also be expected.

A 1,000-year-old Buddhist statue taken from Tibet by Nazi scientists is the first-known carving of a human figure made from a meteorite, newly-published research says.
With stylistic links to the 11th century Bön culture, the sculpture is thought to depict the Buddhist god Vaisravana.
Despite measuring just 24cm in height, the object weighs 10kg (22lb). Now geochemical analysis by the University of Stuttgart, published in Meteoritics and Planetary Science, has revealed that the artefact is made of ataxite, a rare class of iron meteorite with a high nickel content.
‘The statue is the only known illustration of a human figure to be carved into a meteorite,’ said project-leader Dr Elmar Buchner, from the university’s Institute of Planetology. ’It was chiseled from a fragment of the Chinga meteorite which crashed into the border areas between Mongolia and Siberia about 15,000 years ago.’
He told CWA: ‘Stylistically, it is not absolutely typical for Buddhist or pre-Buddhist art, but during the 11th century there was a style of religious art in the Himalayan area, that can be described as a hybrid style between the two. It was called Bön culture, and this figure is typical of that style.There are similar figurative illustrations of gods – and also of local dignitaries – from the 11th century, made from wood, stone or other material – but not of a meteorite!’
Called the ‘Iron Man’, the statue was brought to Germany by an SS-backed expedition investigating the origins of Aryanism in Tibet in 1938-1939. It is not known exactly how or where the statue was found, but the large swastika carved into the centre of the figure – an ancient symbol representing good fortune – may have encouraged the team to take it with them. After decades in a private collection, the artefact became available for study following an auction in 2009.
Meteorites have inspired veneration in a number of cultures, from Inuits in Greenland to the aboriginal peoples of Australia. The Black Stone in the Kaaba (the building circled by Muslim pilgrims during the Hajj) at Mecca is also believed to be a stony meteorite.

Iraq, which the ancient Greeks called Mesopotamia or “land between two rivers” because of the Tigris and Euphrates, has always been regarded by archaeologists as the cradle of civilization.

Driven by the desire to reassemble some of the country’s lost history, a group of Iraqi archaeologists have recently managed to unearth artifacts and a Babylonian temple’s structure dating back to the middle Babylon period between 1532 BC to 1000 BC at an archaeological site in Iraq’s southern province of Nassiriya.

The site, excavated at 500 square meter at Abu Rabab plateau and located 150 km in east of Nassiriya city, is part of a project called “Gardens of Eden” which Iraqi government plans to launch over the next few years to promote tourism in the province.

“There are many archaeological sites in this region including the ancient archaeological plateaux that was excavated as part of the marshes project, the archaeological site of Abu Rabab, Abu al-Dhahb, Abu Massaed site, and other archaeological plateaux. Now we are working in four archaeological plateaux that are located near the province and near the marshes. The work is being done in this area because the site is close to the province, and water does not leak in the archaeological plateaux,” said Iyad Mahmoud, Archaeologist and director of archaeological team.

Some valuable artifacts and relics were discovered during the site excavations.

“We have unearthed two buildings, the building units could be a Babylonian temple. Artifacts, including jars, clay tablets, cylinder and flat stamps, were also discovered near the site,” Mahmoud added.

Thousands of priceless relics were looted from Iraq’s museums and archeological sites in the mayhem that followed the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Some 15,000 artifacts were thought to have been looted from the Iraqi National Museum and thousands more from archeological sites since the start of the 2003 war.

Mahmoud pointed out that financial backing is the key problem that hinders excavations in Nassiriya.

“The main problem we have is the financial allocations by ministry of finance and ministry of planning. The second reason is that the government does not give enough attention to relics. I do not mean the central government in particular, but I mean the long-term planning for the archaeological sites, the archaeological site needs huge amount of money,” he explained.

In recent years the Iraqi government has slowly reassembled some of Iraq’s lost history.

On September 2011 officials announced the recovery of the headless statue of a Sumerian king and more than 500 other pieces. Two weeks later the National Museum found 600 missing items stashed in a storeroom of the prime minister's office.

In December 2008, Iraqi authorities seized 228 artifacts that smugglers planned to take out of the country.
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/09/25/240117.html

miércoles, 26 de septiembre de 2012

Carthaginian burial site was not for child sacrifice but was instead a graveyard for babies and fetuses, researchers now say.
A new study of the ancient North African site offers the latest volley in a debate over the primary purpose of the graveyard, long thought to be a place of sacred sacrifice.
"It's all very great, cinematic stuff, but whether that was a constant daily activity ― I think our analysis contradicts that," said study co-author Jeffrey Schwartz of the University of Pittsburgh.
The city-state of Carthage was founded in the ninth century B.C., when Queen Dido fled Phoenicia (along the eastern Mediterranean shore) for what is now Tunis, Tunisia. The empire became a powerhouse of the ancient world and fought several wars against the Romans.
When archaeologists began excavating the ancient civilization last century, they found urns with the cremated remains of thousands of babies, young goats and lambs at a graveyard called the Tophet, which had been used from 700 to 300 B.C. At its peak, the Tophet may have been bigger than a football field and had nine levels of burials.

Tophet covered an area about the size of a football field, and so future generations were buried over their predecessors, with scientists saying there are about nine layers of burials.CREDIT: Dennis Jarvis, Flickr

Based on historical accounts, scientists believed Carthaginians sacrificed children at the Tophet before burying them there. For instance, the Bible describes child sacrifice to the deity Baal, worshipped by a civilization in Carthage. A Greek and a Roman historian both recount gory tales from this time period in which of priests slit the throats of babies and tossed them into fiery pits, Schwartz said. [8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries]
However, those accounts came from Carthage's enemies. "Some of this might have been anti-Carthaginian propaganda," Schwartz told LiveScience.
In 2010 Schwartz and his colleagues used dental remains from 540 individuals to argue that the site was not primarily for ritual child slaughter, and they reiterate that stance in this month's issue of the journal Antiquity. In the new article, the researchers cite several older studies to validate their methods for estimating infant ages from tooth fragments.
The team argues that many tooth fragments found at the Tophet were actually developing tooth buds from the jaws of fetuses and stillborn babies who could not have been live sacrifices. As evidence, they showed that half of the teeth lacked a sign of birth called the neonatal line. The stress of birth temporarily halts tooth development in newborns, creating a tiny, dark line in their tooth buds; however, the line doesn't form until a week or two after birth.
Other researchers still believe the Tophet was a place for sacred killing.
"This is not a regular cemetery; the age distribution suggests they were sacrificing infants at the age of 1 month," said Patricia Smith, an anthropologist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Smith's team published a 2011 paper questioning Schwartz's dental analysis. The incredible heat and pressure generated during cremation usually erase the neonatal line, she said, so its absence isn't a reliable measure of age. Schwartz's team miscalculated how much teeth shrink in cremation, leading to an underestimate of infant ages, Smith argued.
Smith also doubts Carthage would have routinely cremated stillbirths or infants. Because of sky-high infant mortality rates, babies were probably not considered people until they were at least 1 or 2 years old. The Carthaginians chopped down most of their trees to plant crops and wouldn't have used the precious wood to burn babies, she said.
"The Carthaginians were seafarers; they needed wood for ships, they needed wood for cloth, they needed wood for their tools," she said.

Richard Gray
IT IS one of Britain's most intriguing archaeological finds. When two almost perfectly preserved 3000-year-old skeletons were dug up on a remote Scottish island they were the first evidence that ancient Britons preserved their dead using mummification.
The scientists who uncovered the skeletons also found clues that one of them, apparently a man buried in a crouching position, was not a single individual, but had been assembled from the body parts of different people.
The discovery began a 10-year investigation into what had led the Bronze Age islanders to this strange fate. Now, a study using the latest technology has found that the two skeletons together comprise the remains of at least six individuals who died several hundred years apart.
The researchers believe that large extended families may have shared their homes with the mummified remains of their ancestors, before deliberately putting the bodies together to look like single corpses - possibly in an attempt to demonstrate the uniting of different families.

Mike Parker Pearson, an archaeologist at University College London who led the research, said the mixing of the body parts could have been because of ''misfortune or carelessness''. But he added: ''The merging of their identities may have been a deliberate act, perhaps designed to amalgamate different ancestries into a single lineage.''

The skeletons were unearthed in 2001 while Professor Parker Pearson was examining the remains of buildings at a site called Cladh Hallan in a sand quarry in South Uist. The site had been a Bronze Age settlement that was inhabited for well over 1000 years.
While digging out the foundations of one of the houses, the archaeologists found the skeletons of an adult man and a woman they believed to be aged about 40.
The skeletons appeared to be more than 3000 years old and predated the house under which they were buried by several hundred years. Both had been buried in a crouched position on their sides and, from the way the bones remained connected, it appeared they had been carefully preserved

martes, 25 de septiembre de 2012

JPOST.COM STAFF
200 colored beads found in a bowl, and ostrich figures carved on a stone plate alongside animal figurines have been discovered on Sunday at the Ein Zippori national park, located in the Lower Galilee.
Ahead of the widening of Highway 79, extensive archaeological excavations have been conducted by the Antiquities Authority. During the excavations, a variety of impressive prehistoric artifacts have been uncovered.

Prehistoric settlement remains that range in date from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (c. 10,000 years ago) to the Early Bronze Age (c. 5,000 years ago) are at the Ein Zippori site, which extends south of Ein Zippori spring.
The site, extending over c. 200 dunams, might be the largest in the country where there are remains of the "Wadi Rabah" culture.
This culture is named after the site where it was first discovered (in the region of Rosh Ha-Ayin), and is common in Israel from the end of the sixth millennium and beginning of the fifth millennium BCE”.
According to Dr. Ianir Milevski and Nimrod Getzov, excavation directors on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The presence of remains from the Wadi Rabah culture in most of our excavation areas and in surveys that were performed elsewhere at the site shows that Ein Zippori is an enormous site. It turns out that this antiquities site is one of the largest, if not the largest, in the country where there are remains of this culture."
A multitude of artifacts has been uncovered in the excavation, including pottery, flint tools, basalt vessels and artistic objects of great importance.
Milevski and Getzov said, “Pottery bearing features characteristic of the Wadi Rabah culture such as painted and incised decorations and red and black painted vessels were exposed. Outstanding among the flint tools that were discovered are the sickle blades that were used to harvest grain, indicating the existence of an agricultural economy."
It is also clear from the material of many objects that are not indigenous to the region that the items constituted part of the network of trade that stretched over thousands of kilometers in such an ancient period. For example, thin sharp blades made of obsidian, a volcanic stone is not indigenous to Israel, and the closest source is in Turkey.
Among the special finds that were uncovered in the excavation is a group of small stone bowls that were made with amazing delicacy.
One of them was discovered containing more than 200 black, white and red stone beads [pictured].
Other important artifacts found were clay figurines of animals (sheep, pig and cattle) that illustrate the importance of animal breeding in those cultures.

The most importance finds are stone seals or amulets bearing geometric motifs and stone plaques and bone objects decorated with incising. Among the stone plaques is one that bears a simple but very elegant carving depicting two running ostriches.
According to the researchers, these objects represent the world of religious beliefs and serve as a link that connects Ein Zippori with the cultures of these periods in Syria and Mesopotamia.
Milevski and Getzov stated: “The arrival of these objects at the Ein Zippori site shows that a social stratum had already developed at that time that included a group of social elite which used luxury items that were imported from far away countries”.
The most important findings are seals or talismans stone with geometric motifs and stone plates decorated with incised bone tools.
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=285944

lunes, 24 de septiembre de 2012

Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor
A recently deciphered Egyptian papyrus from around 1,900 years ago tells a fictional story that includes drinking, singing, feasting and ritual sex, all in the name of the goddess Mut.
Researchers believe that a priest wrote the blush-worthy tale, as a way to discuss controversial ritual sex acts with other priests.
"Our text may represent a new and hitherto unrecognized Egyptian literary genre: 'cult' fiction, the purpose of which was to allow controversial or contentious matters pertaining to the divine cult to be scrutinized in this way," wrote professors Richard Jasnow and Mark Smith, who published their translation and analysis of the papyrus in the most recent edition of the journal Enchoria.

Jasnow, from Johns Hopkins University, and Smith, from Oxford, write that evidence of ritual sex is rare in ancient Egypt and the act probably would have been controversial. "There is surprisingly little unequivocal Egyptian evidence for the performance of the sex act as such in ritual contexts," Jasnow and Smith wrote. [The Sex Quiz: Myths, Taboos & Bizarre Facts]
They added that the Egyptians were known to discuss other controversial matters using fictional stories.Writing about sex

Containing writing in a form of ancient Egyptian known as Demotic, the papyrus is likely to have originated in the Fayum village of Tebtunis at a time when the Romans controlled Egypt. It is currently in Florence, Italy, in the Istituto Papirologico "G. Vitelli."

The drinking, feasting, singing and ritual sex mentioned in the Egyptian papyrus, were carried out in the name of the goddess Mut, shown here on a temple that dates back more than 3,200 years. According to legend she served as the "eye of Re" and left Egypt, traveling south, before returning to great rejoicing. CREDIT: BasPhoto, Shutterstock

The newly deciphered tale refers several times to having sex. At one point a speaker implores a person to "drink truly. Eat truly. Sing" and to "don clothing, anoint (yourself), adorn the eyes, and enjoy sexual bliss." The speaker adds that Mut will not let you "be distant from drunkenness on any day. She will not allow you to be lacking in any (manner)."
The speaker defends his views by saying, "As for those who have called me evil, Mut will 'call' them evil."
Researchers know the story is fictional because it employs an Egyptian noun used only in fiction to mark separate sections of a story. The full story
Reconstructing the overall plot narrative of the papyrus is tricky. The text is fragmentary, and researchers cannot be certain how the full story unfolded.
"Conceivably, we have here the remains of an account of how an adherent of the goddess Mut persuaded another individual to devote himself to her worship or join in her rites," the researchers write.
This "cult fiction" interpretation of the papyrus is backed up by the Greek writer Herodotus, who lived more than 2,400 years ago. He wrote that "it was the Egyptians who first made it a matter of religious observance not to have intercourse with women in temples, nor enter a temple after such intercourse without washing." (That translation is from "Herodotus Volume 1," Harvard University Press, 1990.)
For some ancient Egyptians, the idea of mixing sex and religion may have been extreme, a problem priests discussed by way of a fictional story.
Smith declined an interview request, telling LiveScience that everything the researchers wanted to say is in the journal article. He did add that new fragments of the papyrus recently were discovered, and they may allow for more of the story to be deciphered.